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“Were the performing arts in imperial Russia an outlet for opposition politics or ideas? The historiography of the era predicts the answer is yes, but the reality is actually the opposite,” said Paul du Quenoy, Associate Professor, Department of History and Archeology, American University of Beirut, at a 14 May 2012 Kennan Institute lecture. Presenting the research behind his book, Stage Fright: Politics and the Performing Arts in Late Imperial Russia, du Quenoy contended that theatrical artists and artistic institutions of the era avoided politics, or were at least resistant to staging productions critical of the state.

Spotlight on Central Eurasia Series // Authors and scholars Alexander Cooley and Alexander Kupatadze discuss their research into the interplay of geopolitics and local networks across Central Asia. Cooley explores the dynamics of the new competition between Russia, China and the United States over the region since 9/11, as well as how small states’ interaction with great powers advances our understanding of how world politics actually works in the contemporary era of diminishing Western influence and rising new regional powers. Author Alexander Kupatadze will discuss the diverging trajectories of organized crime in post-Soviet Eurasia focusing on professional criminals (so-called vory-v-zakone) in Georgia and drug smuggling groups in Kyrgyzstan.

Vladimir Sergevnin, Assistant Professor, School of Law Enforcement and Justice Administration and Director, Center for Applied Criminal Justice, Western Illinois University; and Editor, Law Enforcement Executive Forum, will address one of the critical issues of modern law enforcement segment of the Russian state: does police reform produce a new paradigm in controlling misconduct and corruption? What are some of the first results in reforming Russian police towards more accountability and professionalism?

The Kennan Institute, in partnership with the ABA Rule of Law Initiative, will host a seminar consisting of leading Russian human rights experts visiting the U.S. as part of ABA ROLI’s Conditions of Confinement and Prison Reform Study Tour, funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development. The meeting will address Russian citizens’ use of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) as a tool for justice, its judgments on prison issues, and the court’s broader influence on the Russian judicial system.

The recent rise of public activity in Russia was facilitated by a quick growth of the number of users of Internet that has changed the configuration of the public sphere. How it affects the offer at the market of political ideas? What are the perspectives of political dialog? Is it possible to talk about the new quality of the practices of public communication? Olga Malinova, Chief Research Fellow, Institute of Scientific Information for Social Sciences, Russian Academy of Sciences, and Professor, Moscow State Institute of International Relations, Moscow, will argue that comparative analysis of electoral campaigns of 2011 and 2012 provides some evidence for answering these questions.

President Vladimir Putin was “the person to know in St. Petersburg,” according to Karen Dawisha, Walter E. Havighurst Professor of Political Science and Director, Havighurst Center for Russian and Post-Soviet Studies, Miami Universtiy, Oxford, Ohio, and Public Policy Scholar, Woodrow Wilson Center, at a recent Kennan Institute event.

Robert Edelman, professor of Russian history and the history of sport at the University of California, San Diego will lead a panel discussion on his latest book entitled Spartak Moscow: A History of the People's Team in the Workers' State which examines one of the most successful Soviet soccer clubs of all-time.

The Wilson Center’s Canada Institute and Kennan Institute, with the Center for Canadian Studies at Duke University, joined UNC Chapel Hill’s Center for Slavic, Eurasian, and East European Studies (CSEEES) to host Who “Owns” The Arctic?: An International and Interdisciplinary Conference on March 28, 2012 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The conference brought together policymakers, academics, students, and environmentalists to explore diverse issues related to Arctic resource and energy management from Russian, Canadian, American, and other perspectives.